UNPO Condemns the Russian President’s Emissary’s Denial of the Existence of Human Rights Violations in Crimea
Oleg Belaventsev, plenipotentiary of the Russian President, stated that the human rights of the Crimean Tatars are not being violated. While contradicting the statement of the former leaders of the Mejlis, Mr Belaventsev also accused them of being ‘criminals’ and trying to foment tensions between Russia and Crimea. UNPO believes that the Russian Government should not brush off the Tatar leaders’ concerns, but rather recognize the issue, engage in dialogue and put an end to the discrimination against their community.
Below is an article published by Sputnik.
The claims by the former leaders of Mejlis regarding the alleged violations of the rights of Crimean Tatars in Crimea do not accord with reality, Russian president’s plenipotentiary in Crimea Oleg Belaventsev said.
After Crimea reunited with Russia, the former heads of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People – a representative body of Crimean Tatars — Mustafa Dzhemilev and Refat Chubarov have been denied access on the territory of the region for inciting inter-ethnic discord. Since then, Dzhemilev and Chubarov repeatedly stated that the rights of Crimean Tatars in Crimea are allegedly being violated.
“Our common vision is that there are no problems with [the rights of] Crimean Tatars in Crimea, there are problems with the odious leaders who break the law, carry out subversive activities, and we, as the authorities, cannot allow them act this way,” Belaventsev said.
The deputy head of the Crimean government Ruslan Balbec said that the Crimean Tatars are successfully integrating into Russian community.
“During all the years when Crimea was a part of Ukraine, the issue of Crimean Tatars served as an instrument of influence for the US State Department, and the Crimean Tatars were hostages of the fact that the Ukrainian authorities gave a monopoly right to represent the interest of all [Crimean] people to one person – Mustafa Dzhemilev,” Balbec said, adding that now the United States are trying to impose Dzhemilev’s view of the situation in Crimea to the whole world.
According to Balbec, since Crimea’ s reunification with Russia, Crimean Tatars for the first time in 23 years received real opportunities to develop their culture, religion and solve their social and economic problems.
Crimean Tatars are a Turckic ethnic group that formed in the Crimean Peninsula in the 13-17th centuries. In 1944, Stalin deported Crimean Tatars to Central Asia, but many of them have returned to the region in early 1990s. Currently some 260,000 Crimean Tatars live on the peninsula.
Read more: http://sputniknews.com/russia/20150312/1019379184.html#ixzz3UGtTzkp0
